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Another challenge Freddy will have to overcome


Webster Guy

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Interesting quote from a fantasy football website tonite

 

Re: Fred Jackson:

 

He should start off the season on a tear, but he is 31. Emmitt Smith, Curtis Martin and Thomas Jones... those are the three players that played elite fantasy football at 31... that's it. Is Freddy Jackson really going to be the 4th in fantasy history? Guess how many fantasy studs have played elite fantasy football at 32? Zero. 31 is the cutoff, and again, I'm not banking on Freddy being the 4th to enter the club. This means that the CJ Spiller show begins at some point this season - Get your tickets early!I'

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Freddy has the NFL wear and tear of a guy 5 years younger. That's why stats like this mean nothing.

 

He does have mileage still though. He still played games, still was working his body hard.

 

And some things are simply age not carries.

 

That said, I like him this year.

Edited by NoSaint
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He does have mileage still though. He still played games, still was working his body hard.

 

And some things are simply age not carries.

 

That said, I like him this year.

Carries is what counts more. He had just 817 in his NFL career. I don't know what his NFLE carries were, but I doubt when added to his NFL carries that they were even half of what the other guys listed had, by the age of 31.

Edited by Doc
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Just as an example, after their season they were 30 years old (going into their 31 year old season), Emmit Smith had 3,243 carries. Fred Jackson has 817.

 

He had 550 in Arena and 157 in NFL europe, for a total of 1,524, less than half of Emmit, and surely the Arena games and NFL Europe they didn't hit as hard.

Edited by Kelly the Dog
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He does have mileage still though. He still played games, still was working his body hard.

 

And some things are simply age not carries.

 

That said, I like him this year.

This---^

the odds of being in NFLE, and Arena Football and making it big into the NFL are slim to none. The ones that do are usually the best of the best. And usually the best of the best are the mules of thier teams. I'm sure Freddy has lots of miles on him. And like you said, sometimes it's just not the mileage, sometimes it's just that when you get older you get slower, fatter, balder, you name it. There's a reason why no stud RBs have ever made it to 32. It's because their bodies aren't what they used to be regardless of wear and tear. You don't see too many 30+ year old sprinter winning the 100 nowdays either. It's because younger is faster, faster is better. Always has been. It's the way of life. People need to get a grip when talking about Freddy and how it won't affect him. They are dilusional if they think that. I give Freddy 1-2 more years tops at a high level. Anything after that, he'll be backup material on 3rd down.

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Freddy has the NFL wear and tear of a guy 5 years younger. That's why stats like this mean nothing.

 

ive said this a jillion times so i guess this is a jillion and one:

 

you could put a rb on a shelf feeding him nothing but milk and honey until he was 30 and he will STILL hit the wall very soon afterwards. your body continues to age and degrade no matter how little 'wear and tear' you get, so that argument is utter bullcrap

 

love me some freddie but i agree, this is his last shot at elite production, and frankly i wouldnt be at all surprised if the wall smacks him in the face this very season. very close to time to transition him to the third down/specialty back, if it hasnt happened already

 

players at almost every other position and every other sport have ways they can adapt to their declining physical abilities. quarterbacks become smarter, goalies improve precise positioning, pitchers learn more precise placement. but rb is such a simple formula that theres really no way to adapt - you can either accelerate, cut on a dime, and plow through arm tackles or you cant. not much chance to adapt with those straight forward requirements

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ive said this a jillion times so i guess this is a jillion and one:

 

you could put a rb on a shelf feeding him nothing but milk and honey until he was 30 and he will STILL hit the wall very soon afterwards. your body continues to age and degrade no matter how little 'wear and tear' you get, so that argument is utter bullcrap

 

love me some freddie but i agree, this is his last shot at elite production, and frankly i wouldnt be at all surprised if the wall smacks him in the face this very season. very close to time to transition him to the third down/specialty back, if it hasnt happened already

What evidence do you have of that?

 

Your body doesn't age that much at 30 years old, sorry. You may use a .1 off your 40 times and could likely make that up by being smarter. Why do you think baseball players play a lot longer at high levels even though they play 10x the games? Because they don't get the crap beat out of them. Why do you think RB are the shortest of careers in the NFL? Because more than any other position they get the crap beat out of them.

Edited by Kelly the Dog
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I put this up last year, Freddy's goal should be to be the NFLs leading rusher past 30. Marcus Allen is the leader and I see a lot of similarities with the exception of Freddy's lack of an aerial game. Allen played his last season at 37 and consistnently put up good yards and tds.

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lmao what evidence? how about the evidence the op provided? there have been thousands of nfl rbs and the grand total of the ones that produced at a high level at the age of 32 is exactly zero

 

like i said, theres nothing a rb can to to adapt to diminishing skills enough that will keep him in a featured back role. they barely manage to survive as third down backs at that age and usually only have one or two seasons left even doing that

 

freddie has been awesome but hes not superhuman. at least i dont think he is

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Just as an example, after their season they were 30 years old (going into their 31 year old season), Emmit Smith had 3,243 carries. Fred Jackson has 817.

 

He had 550 in Arena and 157 in NFL europe, for a total of 1,524, less than half of Emmit, and surely the Arena games and NFL Europe they didn't hit as hard.

 

Ultimately, the best analysis would be to focus on guys that got a late start- either like Freddie, or after splitting carries. I can't think of anyone that outlasted the field that way though.

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lmao what evidence? how about the evidence the op provided? there have been thousands of nfl rbs and the grand total of the ones that produced at a high level at the age of 32 is exactly zero

 

like i said, theres nothing a rb can to to adapt to diminishing skills enough that will keep him in a featured back role. they barely manage to survive as third down backs at that age and usually only have one or two seasons left even doing that

 

freddie has been awesome but hes not superhuman. at least i dont think he is

You said a guy could never play football and never get hit and he would soon hit a wall after 30. There is nothing about the RB the OP mentioned that resembles that, in fact he used three of the most workhorse RBs in history. A physical trainer who works out lie a maniac every day and doesn't get hit by linebackers doesn't hit a wall when they hit 30.

 

Ultimately, the best analysis would be to focus on guys that got a late start- either like Freddie, or after splitting carries. I can't think of anyone that outlasted the field that way though.

Well surely he's an aberration. Not because he's superhuman physically. It's possible he will wear down soon (although I doubt it). I think he has three good years left counting this one. It's just hard to imagine any other player that just didn't get a chance like him that was as good as him. I can't recall a RB that didnt get going for 5-6 years after their college career.

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thats a great point about marcus allen, he was good for a long time and the best after age 30. but hes also evidence that a back cant be an elite featured guy very long after 30. with the exception of emmit smith, allen probably had the greatest load of anybody after 30, but even he wasnt really a featured guy at that point

 

still, his production after 30 was indeed impressive compared to just about anybody else, especially considering how long he played and contributed. i would be thrilled if freddie managed to emulate marcus, but frankly i seriously doubt it. he really would be close to superhuman if he did

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thats a great point about marcus allen, he was good for a long time and the best after age 30. but hes also evidence that a back cant be an elite featured guy very long after 30. with the exception of emmit smith, allen probably had the greatest load of anybody after 30, but even he wasnt really a featured guy at that point

 

still, his production after 30 was indeed impressive compared to just about anybody else, especially considering how long he played and contributed. i would be thrilled if freddie managed to emulate marcus, but frankly i seriously doubt it. he really would be close to superhuman if he did

 

Closest similarities is the "glide" and never taking direct shots and the trademark leg churn after contact. There's no doubt Allen is the better pure athlete - look at the vertical jump - but Fred has something unique that makes him special.

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One thing against even my own argument that he has a lot less wear and tear on him is that he catches the ball a good deal, which is getting smacked, and he is asked to block to protect the QB a lot, which is also getting smacked and taking some punishment.

 

The glide thing, however, is very true. He doesn't take a lot of really hard hits. And he's also not used a lot in a power running formation, but in a more wide open offense, which gives him some room to move and avoid the crunching that a lot of RBs get. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I don't think anyone knows the answer when he will begin to slow down, and those who say soon may well be right, but he's just starting to speed up. last year, to me, he showed more speed on a few plays (like that 4th quarter catch and run against the patsies) than I ever saw him do before. He was running by people consistently, and he's not supposed to be fast.

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